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MAXIMIZING FOOD PLOT TONNAGE

I would have to say that over the nearly 25 years of being in business, the most common challenge nearly everyone has with food plots, is that sometime during the fall, the deer will have wiped out your food plot(s) and then unfortunately moved on to other food sources-many times, off your hunting land and on to a neighboring property.  As a land owner/land manager, your goal should be to have somewhere between 5-10% of your property in food plots.  So if you own 120 acres, your goal should be to have somewhere between 6-12 acres in food plots.  The bottom line is that if you fall below that 5% , sometime throughout the fall, the deer will have exhausted the food plots on your land and moved on to another property that has food sources available.  

Unfortunately, you may NOT be able to plant the required acres, because it is leased land and the farmer will not give up any more acres, or it may be predominantly timber and the openings are not there to till up.  In these situations, it is absolutely critical that you maximize the tons of forage you can produce on these plots. The thing to remember about food plots, is that planting a food plot(s) is similar to anything you undertake in life-THE MORE EFFORT YOU PUT INTO IT, THE GREATER THE REWARD!!!  If you follow this column, I will cover MANY important parts of being successful in planting food plots, from soil testing, tilling, fertilizing, seeding, and many other factors.

Getting back to maximizing tonnage-here in the upper Midwest, it is getting a bit late to be planting anything, but it is now that we will put another application of our JOLT foliar fertilizer on our plots.  JOLT is absorbed by the plant through its leaves, and it basically gives the plants food for about a 3-4 week period.  We will spray the JOLT once a month up until the first frost and it is amazing as to the additional tons of forage we can produce on these plots, which translates into more food AND keeping the deer on these plots and not losing them to alternate food sources.  During one of these fall applications of JOLT, we will also put our Antler King PLOT MAX in the same tank as the JOLT and apply both to the plots at one time.  The PLOT MAX should be applied once in the spring and once in the fall and this product will raise the pH of the soil, increase the ability of the soil to retain moisture, unlock nutrients in the soil, and raise organic mater, which is a measure of the overall health of the soil.  Think of PLOT MAX as a soil “tune up”.  Both of these products are a very inexpensive way to Maximize forage production and KEEP deer on your plots.  Both may also be mixed in the same tank as chemicals, so in some situations, if I have grasses invading my plots, I will tank mix a grass herbicide, JOLT , and perhaps even PLOT MAX and spray this mixture over my plot(s) and kill grasses and fertilize the good plants and enhance the soil all in one pass!  

Todd Stittleburg

Antler King Trophy Products Inc.